Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics, October 25th, 1871

MAXWELL, James Clerk

Published by Macmillan, London & Cambridge, 1871

About this Item

MAXWELL'S INAUGURAL LECTURE. First edition, extremely rare, of Maxwell's inaugural lecture as Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge, which marks the beginning of the tradition of experimental research at the Cavendish Laboratory, a tradition which was to lead to 29 Nobel Prizes being awarded to members of the Cavendish between 1904 and 1989. This lecture was delivered just two years before Maxwell published his famous Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, which "did for electromagnetism what Newton's Principia had done from classical mechanics. It not only provided the mathematical tools for the investigation and representation of the whole electromagnetic theory, but it altered the very framework of both theoretical and experimental physics. It was this work that finally displaced action-at-a-distance physics and substituted the physics of the field" (Historical Encyclopedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, p. 2539). "[Maxwell] may well be judged the greatest theoretical physicist of the 19th century . Einstein's work on relativity was founded directly upon Maxwell's electromagnetic theory; it was this that led him to equate Faraday with Galileo and Maxwell with Newton" (PMM). Amongst many eloquent statements in Maxwell's inaugural lecture, perhaps the most famous is the following: "the history of science shews that even during that phase of her progress in which she devotes herself to improving the accuracy of the numerical measurement of quantities with which she has long been familiar, she is preparing the materials for the subjugation of new regions, which would have remained unknown if she had contented with the rough guide of the earlier pioneers". Also notable are Maxwell's discussion of 'Experiments of Illustration' and 'Experiments of Research', and the Baconian 'Experiments in Concert', i.e., collaborative global measurement projects, especially into terrestrial magnetism. Maxwell also introduces his 'statistical method' in a discussion of molecules in motion, and ends on a visionary note regarding the ultimate nature of atoms, citing William Thomson (Lord Kelvin): "what if these molecules," he writes, "indestructible as they are, turn out to be not substances themselves, but mere affections of some other substance?" The Cavendish Laboratory was opened in 1874, just three years after Maxwell's appointment as Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics. OCLC lists five copies of Maxwell's inaugural lecture in the UK (BL, Cambridge, Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Oxford), one in the US (Huntington), and one in Amsterdam. We have been unable to trace any other copy having appeared in commerce. Provenance: John Henry Michell (1863-1940), Australian mathematician (small stamp to rear cover). Born in Maldon, Victoria, Michell studied at the University of Melbourne and then Trinity College, Cambridge; he was bracketed Senior Wrangler (a distinction denied even to Maxwell) with three others in the Mathematical Tripos in 1887. He was appointed a fellow of Trinity College in 1890, but returned to Australia in the same year, and went on to become Professor of Mathematics at the University of Melbourne. He was one of the earliest graduates of an Australian university to be elected to the Royal Society, becoming FRS in 1902. The scientific knowledge built up before the 1870's was the result of individual work in essentially private laboratories. The wealthy amateur physicist, such as Joule or Cavendish, would have a laboratory at his home, while the academic scientist would work in his college rooms. The great contributions to science produced by, for example, Isaac Newton, Thomas Young, and George Gabriel Stokes were all accomplished in College rooms and largely unaided. Around the middle of the nineteenth century a great deal of discussion arose about the practical training of scientists and engineers at all levels. The British Association, the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Scienc.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Introductory Lecture on Experimental Physics, October 25th, 1871
• Publisher: Macmillan, London & Cambridge
• Publication Date: 1871
• Edition: First edition.
• Seller catalogs:
  • Classical Physics, Mechanics, Optics